


Hotel California

by im_from_mars_duhh



Category: Hotel California - The Eagles (Song), The Eagles (Band)
Genre: Band, Eagles, Hotel California - Freeform, Music, Song - Freeform, the eagles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 04:36:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12148755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_from_mars_duhh/pseuds/im_from_mars_duhh
Summary: My quite-literal take on the song Hotel California by the Eagles.





	Hotel California

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:  
> I DO NOT OWN THE SONG HOTEL CALIFORNIA IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM  
> ALL RIGHTS TO THE SONG-IT'S TITLE AND LYRICS USED IN THIS STORY-GO TO THE BAND THE EAGLES  
> I ONLY OWN THE WORDS I HAVE WRITTEN THAT WERE INSPIRED BY IT

_ On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair _

_ Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air _

 

I sat alone in my mustang, it's convertible hood down, the speed I was driving causing the fresh seventy-five degree weather to feel much cooler. Though I was driving so far from it the dank stench of the city could be smelt from miles away. 

I had been driving for hours, not knowing where I was going or where I would end up.

 

_ Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light _

_ My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim _

_ I had to stop for the night _

 

I could see a bright light beginning to peek out over the road ahead. As I got closer it grew brighter and began to reveal itself as a hotel sign. It was then that I realized my state of being, drowsiness pouring over me like water and signs of sleep rushing through me. Thinking it to be smart, I decided I should stop and rest here for the night.

 

_ There she stood in the doorway; _

_ I heard the mission bell _

 

Pulling into the hotel parking lot I noticed a lack of cars. Shrugging it off I got out, closing the door with a thud, and began to walk towards the entrance, quickly noticing the women who stood there. She stood in the doorway, in a way that seemed as though she knew I would be coming. I studied her as I got closer, taking in her appearance. I could tell she was an employee of the hotel by the uniform she wore, though it seemed a bit out of date by some twenty odd years or so. The way she held herself though was quite captivating. Her presence reeked of mystery.

 

_ And I was thinking to myself, _

_ “This could be heaven or this could be Hell” _

 

The women wore a warm smile as I approached, though she was watching me in a way that I couldn’t quite place. It was sort of like how a passing bystander watches an interesting event nearby unfold; they stop to give the event some notice but there’s really nothing else they can do. What it was that she couldn’t do I don’t know. There was something behind her smile and look as she stared at me though, as if she was trying to tell me something. Something important. Something dire. There was just something about it that told me that my stay would either be a good one or a very, very bad one.

 

_ Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way _

 

I walked past the women with a nod as I entered the building, the old-timey 1920's look throwing me off enough to stall me with awe, and before I could even get out a word the woman was standing in front of a hallway to the right of the lobby desk, her right hand wrapped around the holder of a white, lit taper candle as she motioned for me to follow her with her left. Entranced, not at all able to look away from the women, I followed.

 

_ There were voices down the corridor, _

_ I thought I heard them say _

 

As we walked down the hallway, passing door after door, it seemed silent. It was only when I concentrated hard and listened past the echoes of our footsteps that I could faintly hear noises coming from down the hall. As we continued to walk the noises grew louder and more clear, though still hard to hear. I could just barely begin to make out what they were saying.

 

_ Welcome to the Hotel California _

 

It sounded as though they were singing, joyus yet haunting.

 

_ Such a lovely place (such a lovely place) _

_ Such a lovely face _

 

I glanced at the women as we walked down the long corridor, her warm yet mysterious smile still in place, never faltering, though her facial expression seemed dim, as though she were not all there. Ghost-like almost.

 

_ Plenty of room at the Hotel California _

_ Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here _

 

We approached and passed the only room from which seemed to bare any sort of life. It was a few minutes later after much walking through many twists and turns that we arrived in front of a room at what seemed to be the very back of the hotel, far, far away from the front desk. The women pulled a key from her pocket and opened the door, ushering me in, and to my surprise following in suite. I stood in the middle of the room as she let herself in, shutting the door behind herself and taking a seat at a desk near the bed. It seemed weird but not long after she was seated she finally spoke to me for the first time.

 

_ Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends _

_ She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys that she calls friends _

_ How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. _

_ Some dance to remember, some dance to forget _

 

The woman's voice was alluring. We sat for what seemed like hours talking, sharing life stories, most of it coming from her end. I learned a lot about her and I wanted to learn more. I wanted to sit here for the rest of my life if I possibly could and listen to her talk to me, to entrance me with her voice, to have her wrap me up and strangle me with her words so as to have them embedded upon me where I could have her stories to reread whenever I pleased.

 

_ So I called up the Captain, _

_ “Please bring me my wine” _

 

The time I spent with the women was the most fun I had had in years. I wanted to celebrate it, to make the moment as special as possible so as to have a great story of my own to tell to others in the future, so I picked up candlestick telephone on the nightstand and dialed up the number for room service that was on a hotel service card next to it, asking for their best bottle of wine.

 

_ He said, “We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine” _

 

The response I received was quite disappointing. They hadn’t any left. It was after this that the women said she must go and much to my dismay she did, leaving me to sit in my room alone, feeling empty. It was then that I glanced at my wristwatch and realized just how late it was and decided that it would probably be best to go to sleep.

 

_ And still those voices are calling from far away, _

_ Wake you up in the middle of the night _

_ Just to hear them say _

 

Sleep did not come nicely. I had dreams like none I had ever had before, confusing, horrid dreams that came from seemingly nowhere. I awoke frightened and though I tried to get back to sleep it was useless. I tossed and turned but could find no solace, so I just laid there listening to the silence, where as the noises settled and my ears strained I could faintly hear noises from far away. Listening harder I realized it was the same haunting singing I had heard earlier, and as I listened to the lyrics of their song I was able to connect what I heard to what I had dreamt. As I listened harder it began to seem like they were singing to me, as though they had been trying to wake me up to have me listen to their song, so I continued to listen to them as they wanted me to, soaking in their lyrics.

 

_ Welcome to the Hotel California _

_ Such a lovely place (such a lovely place) _

_ Such a lovely face _

_ They livin' it up at the Hotel California _

_ What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise) _

_ Bring your alibis _

 

Their words chilled me. What was it that they wanted? What did their words mean?

 

_ Mirrors on the ceiling, _

_ The pink champagne on ice _

 

Soon their words faded away and I was left to my myself. As I laid there my eyes darted around the dark room, eventually landing on the ceiling, which would be moreso myself. A big mirror had been attached to the ceiling above the bed, most likely for lovers, though the true intentions could not be sure. I sat there staring at myself, staring into my own eyes. I watched intently as a sliver of moonlight shone through a crack in the curtains and begin its slow crawl off of my pillow and across my face, illuminating it in an eerie sort of way, my pale skin and gleaming eyes entrancing me. Suddenly there was a knock at my door which startled me enough to look away. I got up and answered it, only to find the women from earlier with a cart that held the bottle of wine that had been supposedly out of stock and two glasses. She was already in my room and picking the bottle up off of the cart and placing it onto the desk before the words "come in" could even begin to leave my lips. I shut the door, turning to her, and as she looked at me it was only then that I was able to figure out the mystery that lied behind her warm smile: sadness. This frightened me.

 

_ And she said, “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device” _

 

As she looked up at me her sad smile fell and her face grew grim. She then began to speak, telling me of the darkness that resided here in this hotel, of how it came to possess people and take hold of them with a vice grip, reluctant to let go, determined to make them a part of it. It was after her telling me this that I fully understood the situation. Without a word to her I turned and flung open the door and began running down the corridor. I had to get out before I could be captured, before the hotel could take me and make me a part of it like it had her. 

As I ran I realized that I did not know where I was going. There seemed to be no breaks in each hallway I turned down, just door after door appearing down each and every one. Doors everywhere yet no sign of a way out. I could not find the lobby so I was going to have to try something else. I started running from door to door turning knob after knob, hoping that one would open and lead to a way out, but to no avail. They all proved to be locked. It seemed as though my fate had been sealed, that I would be trapped here forever, until I gripped a knob to a door in the very middle of a hallway and gave it a twist, half expecting it to resist, but it didn’t. A pang of hope burst through my chest as I quickly pushed open the door and stumbled inside, the darkness throwing me off at first, until I noticed a bright light that shone down from the far end of the room and the horrible sight in which it illuminated.

 

_ And in the master's chambers, _

_ They gathered for the feast _

_ They stab it with their steely knives, _

_ But they just can't kill the beast _

 

It was as though I had walked into a scene from a scary movie. About ten hooded figures stood in a circle around a table that held something upon it. It was hard to pinpoint what it was because it looked to be what one would describe as a werewolf, though with the head and hooves of a goat. It was terrifying. As I further examined the scene before me I noticed all of the movement that was going on. I watched in horror as the hooded figures impaled the beast with daggers, as though they were trying to kill it, and soon I realized that they were chanting something as they did this. Listening harder I could make out what they were saying to be the song that I had been hearing throughout my stay here. As I continued to listen it was then that the noises the beast was emitting finally registered to my ears and the noise was so shrill that I had to cover them. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. It was the screams of a man but mixed with shrillness of an animal, a goat perhaps. The sound made me nauseous. I took a step back as I tried to cover my ears hard enough to stop the noise, bumping into something in the process and knocking it over, a loud crash and the sound of glass shattering echoing throughout the room. The figures immediately stopped, as did the shrill screeches of the beast, and I watched in horror as every single being from under the light looked at me. I could not see the faces of the figures from under their hoods but I could feel their eyes on me, their gazes piercing my skin and baring into my soul. My eyes darted around in alert, only to land on the beast and see that it was looking right at me as well. My heart stopped and I froze completely. The silence that had fallen was deafening. It was seconds later when my brain finally went into overdrive and my instincts kicked in. Fear took over, turning me on my heels and sending me quickly on my way.

 

_ Last thing I remember, I was _

_ Running for the door _

_ I had to find the passage back to the place I was before _

 

I ran as quickly as I could back out into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind me and running as fast as I could away from it. It was hard to tell how long I had run or how many turns I had taken, but soon—though not soon enough—I finally ended up in a hallway where at the end I could see the lobby of the hotel. Relief flooded through me as I saw this and I was so happy that I nearly cried with joy. Just a few more yards and I would be free. 

I began to run, making it to the lobby in just about ten seconds. The front door was within my sight. I could see it so clearly. I could nearly reach it, and just as I began to take those last few steps towards it it suddenly swung open, stopping me dead in my tracks, and in walked a man dressed in an all black suit. He was tall and pale with dark hair and even darker eyes. It was here that I learned what a menacing smile looked like, one full of malice and evil intent. Then, as the man sauntered towards me, just as it had back in the room with the beast my heart seemed to stop once again. My breath was taken from me and I couldn't find it in me to breath back in. I was so terrified that I couldn't think.

 

_ “Relax,” said the night man, _

_ “We are programmed to receive. _

_ You can check-out any time you like, _

_ But you can never leave!” _

 

The man's dark grin grew wider and my fear grew deeper. I looked around for an escape, only to find that the hooded figures from the room were now in the lobby, off to one side close behind, and the women was standing in the entrance to the corridor she had lead me down earlier, her head hung low. Realizing that there was nowhere to run I slowly turned back around to look at the man, only to see that he had gotten closer. Then, in the blink of an eye he lunged towards me, and all there was to be seen was darkness.


End file.
